pilotdave

Speaking of history and trivia, rec.skydiving still exists (you might remember it from the olden days... the 90s). No non-skydivers there. Oh wait... never mind. Dave

You make me glad that I'm skydiving now and not in 1975! You must have fond memories, but it sounds awful. I jump at a club DZ... no greedy DZO, no full time staff, nobody driven by profit. It's got its advantages, but I sure am glad that there are big commercial dropzones to travel to. Even with a group of jumpers, some students, and a couple cessnas, a dropzone won't last a couple months without tandems... at least not in this part of the world. Ok, that's not true... we survive the winter every year without tandems. But even $25 jumps barely break even these days... to cover the aircraft. Doesn't pay the other bills. And there are a lot of bills... So when are you going to open your own dropzone and run it the way you want? Dave

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=124 Dave

The change in DOF is only perceived because to get the subject to fill the frame with the same lens on a full frame camera as on a cropped camera, you need to be closer. That's what creates the narrower DOF, not the fact that the sensor is bigger. So if you use the same lens at the same distance with a full frame and with a cropped camera, the pictures will look the same... except that the full frame camera will capture more area around the subject. The cropped camera doesn't magnify the image, but it may "focus" more pixels on the subject than the full frame, everything else being equal. So it kind of has an advantage in that digital zoom kinda way. Dave

No... kit lens and recently on my 10-22. No error code. It's never happened when I wasn't using a tongue switch, so I'm guessing it's related. Dave

Ask your rigger for a new one. Dave

Yeah, there are pros and cons to each. Body IS works on all lenses. Lens IS is better in every other way.

I used to have an XT that did that a couple times and I have an XTi that has done that a couple times. Luckily I don't think I've lost any pictures because of it. Had it happen on the ground not too long ago right before boarding. No error code or anything... camera won't respond and won't shut off (the green power light stays on). Pulling the battery out and putting it back in always fixes it for me. Doesn't happen often, but seems pretty random when it does. I think it has something to do with the tongue switch but I don't really know. Dave

Because that violates an FAR and therefore does affect others... such as the pilot. Fatalities also affect people other than the one that died. I'm not suggesting that RSLs should be mandated in particular, but it's very selfish to believe that our choices as far as our own safety go affect only one person. Nobody else has my permission to die... it might affect me so don't do it. Dave

http://www.skydivect.com Open year round... Dave

The "standard" ones: http://skyhivisuals.tripod.com/malfunctions.htm I recently printed up some 13x19s of a few of my openings for the same purpose... but I haven't had anything very interesting to take a picture of. hung slider / closed endcells (aka a normal opening) high line twists I don't plan on getting any pics of anything cool... Dave

Nope, even though you can't use an EF-S lens on a full frame camera, the focal lengths are not changed. A 10-22 on a 40D is like a 16-35 on a full frame... at least as far as field of view goes. Dave

Looks to me like you might need a newer version of photoshop elements. Version 4 is only compatible with an older version of their raw converter plugin. Version 5 should be able to open the files just fine. But I am only going off what I can find on adobe's website. http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3909 Dave

Might help to get a video of a couple of your landings. It's possible you're doing something wrong like flaring out to the side too much or not holding your arms in a way that gives you the most leverage. No way to know without seeing video of what you're doing. If the best technique isn't working, maybe you need to do some weight training and get stronger. A different canopy might also be easier for you to flare, but not too many people would recommend downsizing if you are having trouble landing a bigger canopy. That will be up to your instructors. But I know that I really have to think about getting my elbows up and pushing straight down to finish the flare on a tandem canopy. If I flare it like my own canopy, my forearms get about level and then just stop and I can't flare any farther. Sounds a lot like what you're describing. Dave

Getting close to 10 years and none for me. Trying to keep it that way by not having any friends.

Lots of comments and links to discussions in 4 languages: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2836

The 5D is a full-frame digital camera, so 20mm has a much wider field of view on it than it will on a pentax. But 18 works fine anyway... not that wide, but that just means you need to fly farther away. Exif is the metadata embedded in the image. I use an exif viewer firefox extension... just have to right click on a picture and hit "view exif data" to see all of the photographer's secrets... unless it's been stripped out. You can also save the picture and view the advanced properties in the windows picture viewer to see most of the same data. Dave

It's a 5D at 20mm. You can see all the info in his exif data. Great tool for learning why some pictures come out better than others. Dave

I'm sure airtec would send you a new card but I don't think it matters. If security doesn't like what they see, they aren't going to care what you show them. I do carry the TSA letter and if I can find it, the airline's policy on parachutes. Never had to use either of them though. Dave

Does skydiving get any more fun than this?

My first 99 jumps were all on F111 canopies... mostly PD 9-cells. My 100th was with a sabre2 demo. After opening I said to myself "ooohhh, so that's what a snivel is." Then on landing, I began my flare... felt normal. Then a little more flare and I was going back up in the air. "Ooohhh, so that's what a flare is..." I later decided it was time to buy a new canopy... reading online, I liked the sound of the spectre. I put 17 jumps on a demo and was ready to buy one, but decided to try out a sabre2 again before making up my mind. Weather was bad when i had the demo so i only put 2 jumps on it... but I knew right away that I liked it a lot more than the spectre. I also know a lot of people that have tried both and much prefer the spectre. One isn't better than the other, they're just different. Can't comment on the safire2 or omega... never jumped them. But I'd really try to see what you can borrow. Reading on here will only tell you so much. Really need to try them to see what you like. But I don't think you can really go wrong with any of em. Dave

Took me about 5 years to hit 100 and another 5 to hit 1400. Dave

I'd say most dropzones I've been to have 2 rules... choose a landing direction beforehand, and follow the first person down. Point is that if the first person sees the wind sock pointing straight out in the wrong direction, he can fix the landing direction to something more appropriate. Once he lands the wrong way, everybody else should go ahead and follow so that everybody is landing the same way... even if that turns out to be the wrong way. People WILL follow the first person down. People have been doing that as long as I've been skydiving. They aren't going to stop. You might as well teach people to follow each other so we all land in the same direction. You can yell at the guy that caused everybody to change up their patterns in mid air because he decided to chase the wind sock on the ground after everybody lands... but once somebody changes the pattern, it's probably best for everybody to just follow because somebody is going to do that anyway. I've had loads where half the load landed to the north and half the load landed to the south. There's always a big argument afterward... "WE WERE LANDING TO THE NORTH!" "The wind shifted so the first group landed to the south and we followed!" Once that first group is landing to the south, the pattern has changed and landing to the north might be more dangerous, even though it was agreed. Dave

I'd stick with a 190 if I were you. A ZP canopy is going to be a lot faster than you're used to, even in the same size. You'll be blown away by the opening and flare when you try something new. A spectre will land a little more like you're used to, but with a better flare. A sabre2 will feel completely different... most likely in a good way. I wouldn't worry about 7-cell vs. 9-cell... Just start demoing some different canopies and see what you like. You're really maxing out the wingloading on your PD190 as it is, so I'd definitely suggest a newer canopy. Dave

A few of mine from last weekend... Wingsuit with a little photoshop help. (it looks painted in full size) Frost slides to a stop after a blindman... the rest of the swoop was too blurry. Brotherly love on a 4-way team at breakoff. Half way through Block 1. Team Vortex on the hill. (not a great pic but I can't post 2 pics of another team and not at least one of my own team...